More surprises in iPhone 4? Apple asks FCC to keep details secret

Could Apple have more technical surprises in store for the iPhone? They've asked the FCC to keep photographs and details secret for 45 days, so who knows? We've already heard about the 512MB of RAM hiding inside, but Apple is still playing it coy:

"Although Apple has begun to market the device publicly, these documents reveal technical and design information that has not been publically disclosed in such marketing and that is protected by Apple as confidential and proprietary secrets."

Speculate away. Come next Thursday, there ought to be tear-downs aplenty to find out.

Reader comments

More surprises in iPhone 4? Apple asks FCC to keep details secret

I strongly suspect it has something to do with a vastly improved reception due to the new wraparound antenna design. Mention of any performance gain has been suspiciously absent from the iPhone 4 marketing campaign. The 2-3 product has gained such a reputation for horrible phone reception that they may rather let word of mouth promote it than advertise the difference because it would be a tacit admission that it was the phone's fault not the carrier's.

What's with all the hate towards AT&T. Dam. AT&T smokes any carrier where I live. I had big red and had dropped calls and " no service" on my bb and dead zones. Verizon is not reliable everywhere people just as AT&T is not reliable everywhere. All depends on where you live. They both have the same amount of subsribers So there both doing sething right. I think verizon has a little more but no matter.

scrambled***
They said last year and even before that Apple has placed an order for CMDA chips. Apple doesn't do more than one release a year because they like to sell quality and reliability. they also know that people wait until the time when they get their iphone. If they were going to release another iphone even if it was for china, they would of announced it already at their conference. they aren't going to hold another conference or secretly release a verizon iphone, they want the world to know.

If anything it's going to tmobile. Verizon doesn't allow voice and data at the same time and that defeats the point of half of apples commerials. I will go with standard operating procedure or they don't want a company like htc who can crank out and android device like scrabbled eggs. More so a concern around the release of the iPhone. It might just be as simple as wanting to create the hype. Wants people like us to get more excited.

Same thing with the iPod touch 2gen. Bluetooth chip inside. What was it, two or three updates later it was turned on? Who knows. May be it's the 100 other features besides the known 7 they want to keep quiet about.

http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/cdma-iphone-4-to-ship-q4-2010-veriz...
You know, the Verizon iPhone rumor mill just won’t let up, but this time we are paying a bit more attention. According to Digitimes, Apple has put in orders to have a CDMA iPhone 4 manufactured. If that is the case, that really could only mean that the iPhone is coming to Verizon and/or Sprint. Of course, we won’t know if any of this means anything until Apple tells us it does.
Never say Never

It's only a matter of time before the iPhone comes to another carrier. I honestly don't know why AT&T customers get so defensive about this topic. An iPhone on another network could possibly free up AT&Ts network a little bit. Its no secret that their network has all but cracked under the pressure of its 15+ million iPhone users alone, not to mention other data using smartphones.
I am personally a huge fan of Apple and would put up with AT&Ts network if their service was available in my region. I have had Verizon for a long, long time and can't remember a call ever being dropped. There is also significantly less congestion on the towers in this region, however, than in the larger metropolitan areas.
The iPhone 4 looks amazing, sounds amazing, and will likely BE amazing. Maybe at Christmas I'll be holding a Verizon iPhone 4 in my hands.

Inside will be mankind's only hope for survival against all current and future devices being infected by what they call Droid. In the near future, it will be known to all as Sky___.... [transmission terminated]

This is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE with any new device going thru FCC certification people.
Calm down.
Here is an example for the B&N Nook EReader:https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachmentid=1172044&nativeor_pdf=pdf
Everybody does this. Its not an indication of anything new or earth shaking. The Nook was a standard Android device, no big secrets there.
It is a temporary secrecy request and all documents submitted for FCC cert become public info after a specific time.

The surprise will be A much improved cellular reception and boost of wifi signal via the phones new external attenna. (wishful thinking).
Hopefully the battery in iPhone 4 will be underrated the same way the ipad's battery suprised everyone with better than advertised results :)

@Paulo pereira - you're the first loser. Ha. Try again.
I would if it's internal only or external as well. Indicator light for the win?
"Cellular Radio Schematic" being withheld is very suspect IMO. Not thinking of a Verizon iPhone either... just very suspect.

All of the rumors about Verizon point to a separately manufactured version of the device, so I highly doubt there's a CDMA radio in the version we're getting on the 24th. Furthermore, don't expect any announcements about other carriers in the US for at least a few months at the earliest. It would be a horrible PR move to announce it so early after current AT&T iPhone owners locked themselves into another 2-year contract. On the other hand, it would make pure business sense to withhold information about a Verizon (or other carrier) iPhone simply to maximize sales. It would certainly be in AT&T's benefit. However, Apple's going to sell iPhones no matter if it's existing AT&T customers upgrading, defectors to another carrier, or customers of another carrier upgrading to iPhone. So it would NOT be in Apple's best interest to withhold information about other carriers if they were going to happen any time soon.

I was hesitant to reserve my iPhone because of the things I didnt know, like internal specifications. But after the 512mb RAM revelation and this little tidbit I'm glad I did. Its probably nothing but I hope its that the A4 is clocking in above 1ghz. Most likely its the opposite though.

i do not no if that is real. look close. glass looks very thick like broken class on top of something else, yes?
anyone had true schematic specs? exactly how far is flash from camera, and how far from edge (left and top)? how large is volume buttons?

@chrisj actually you can get a hold of the case needed to repair the iphone 4 already, http://www.ifixyouri.com/blog/?p=59
Here's the drop test on the new iphone 4, took 4 drops from 3.5 feet. I'm pretty sure I won't be dropping mine just for kicks.

3gs had a fm radio that was never turned on? Wow first time I ever heard this one. If so, surprised no jailbreak app ever got to exploit it.
I doubt there's any left surprises In the new phone. That's just my opinion.

Don't they do this every time they release a new iPhone? It makes no sense that there would be more features we haven't heard about. What makes more sense is that they just want to hold tightly to their hardware trade secrets so other companies can't immediately copy them.

Either way, if there are some more hidden goodies past the 512mb ram, I'm psyched. I'm posting this from my droid, but can't wait till I get my iphone 4. I remember the 3g coming out and then the 3gs and the almost unlimited things you could do with them.
It was always a surprise, jailbroken or not. Iphones are amazing with the unlimited potential they have.

Only chance of a CDMA radio would be that fancy QualComm dualmode chip we heard about last year. And there's not much chance of that in this version as it would add global cost to what's a US-only feature.
iPhone 3GS has an FM radio in its chipset, never turned on. What's inside is not always what we get.

Yeah, I'm wondering if they put a Verizon radio in there? Would they have both GSM & CDMA in the same phone? That seems to me like the most likely reason. What other "features" would need to be so secret?